“Would you rather be seen as ‘the weird kid’ or 'the autistic kid’?” I don’t know if that’s a rhetorical question or not, but I would personally much rather be seen as “weird” than “autistic”.

realsocialskills said:

I didn’t write that description, so I can only speak for myself. But I didn’t read it as rhetorical. I thought what it meant was saying “you’ll probably be known as one or the other, think about which you prefer.”

I go back and forth about which I prefer. I like being able to be honest about who I am. And when people don’t stigmatize autism, being able to say what’s actually going on makes things *much* easier, especially when there are conflicts or competing access needs.

But, more often than not, if people know that I am autistic, I end up having to deal with a lot of stigma. I get some of that for looking weird, but I’ve found that people who have a problem with me being weird almost always have an even more negative reaction to me being autistic.

All of this is very complicated. I don’t think there’s a great answer to this - everyone kind of has to find the approach that works the best (or least badly) for them.